Managing multiple Macs?

I'm not even sure where to begin with this one, but I have an hallucination that there is some combination of software and admin settings that would allow me to perform simultaneous upgrades system wide to the 18 odd Macs that I have in my office. As it is, I have to go machine to machine, downloading upgrade install files from my main desktop, or using an upgrade DVD.
I'm a long standing Mac user with 25 years of experience, but I'm not a network genius... I usually just come to the discussion board and poke around until I find someone with a similar problem and see what they do.
Is there a way to configure all of my Macs so that I can boot them all up and send upgrade commands/data from one machine? My office is structured so that our server's only purpose is to access our medical office management software (MacPractice) which contains charting, patient info, scheduling and billing info... all else is done at each terminal with it's own copy of Safari and iWorks, with 4 networked printers available.
I'm thinking there is some kind of Server Admin 101 that would help a nitwit like me, so I don't spend an entire weekend babysitting 18 different system upgrades. Thanks for any direction someone can provide!

Thanks, that's probably what I'm looking for (Remote Desktop).... looks like a $500 item to manage all my computers, plus a bit of a learning curve. Have to decide if that's worth it, considering I only really have this time consuming upgrade business once a year or so, but that would probably be the way to go, especially if I was doing a lot more micro-managing and distribution of files.
Thanks for the prompt help, I knew someone would know what they're talking about round these parts!

Similar Messages

How do I manage multiple macs on my Time Capsule?

I have a 2 TB Time Capsule 4th generation w/ multiple macs backing up to it. I want to be able to manage ALL files on Time Capsule. Is there a way for me to see all the data from all macs on time capsule, and delete those files if necessary? (This has to do with my kids going off to college and me needing to free-up space.)

anthony142 wrote:
Is there a way for me to see all the data from all macs on time capsule, and delete those files if necessary?
See item #17 of this post.
If you want to delete all Time Machine backups for a particular Mac, just mount the Time Capsule's disk (probably called "Data" unless you renamed it), then drag the appropriate "sparsebundle" file to the trash.

How to manage multiple macs

Hello,
I tried posting this in the server forum but didn't get a response. Perhaps there is a better place for this. My family has two MacBooks and two mac minis and would like to manage them more effectively. If an update appears, then we have to download and install it four times. We also have purchased software and would like to somehow manage/coordinate the licenses. It would be helpful if we could somehow create a network or use the mac server software to manage updates and software more effectively. Does any one have suggestions on how to do this?
Thanks!

You can add multiple user accounts to the system in the Users & Groups system preferences, where you can set an account to have full administrative priveleges, or more limited "Standard" or parentally controlled "Managed" accounts. In addition, you can enable the "Guest" user, which resets itself to factory defaults whenever it is logged out.
In this manner your data and those of the other users is kept separate, so an evil sister in law can be given either limited access where no data or settings will be changed (the Guest user), a restricted account intended for kids where you can control application access and time allotments (parental controls), or provide all access except for administrative tasks (a standard user), or finally full access as admin.

Managing multiple macs and ipads for beginners

Hi.
I'v just been given responsibility for maintaining about 40 macs and 160 ipads in a school. I want to deal with things from my MBP where possible. I have been thinking about using the server app (i'm running Yosemite). My main issues are people not updating their macs OS, security updates and apps . I want to push out the latest print drivers other updates and maybe even apps.
For the ipads I will need to update them as the students are too young to do it themselves. I will have to push out different apps to different classes.
I have no programming skills and I am not exactly an expert at networks.
Your advise is greatly welcomed.
thx

Hi.
I'v just been given responsibility for maintaining about 40 macs and 160 ipads in a school. I want to deal with things from my MBP where possible. I have been thinking about using the server app (i'm running Yosemite). My main issues are people not updating their macs OS, security updates and apps . I want to push out the latest print drivers other updates and maybe even apps.
For the ipads I will need to update them as the students are too young to do it themselves. I will have to push out different apps to different classes.
I have no programming skills and I am not exactly an expert at networks.
Your advise is greatly welcomed.
thx

Managing multiple devices in a family - iCloud better using Mac or PC?

Anyone using a Mac to manage multiple i devices? We're sharing an iTunes account in the family and are finding limitations using iCloud on our PC. Specifically, can you manage iCloud on each device from a Mac?

The only practicable way to do this is for each person who has an iCloud account to have their own user account on the Mac, They can then sign into iCloud and keep their data separate from everyong else.
It is possible to have a single user account and sign into one iCloud account in System Preferences>iCloud and then sign into subsequent ones in System Preferences>Mail, Contacts and Calendars, but if you do this with a number of accounts it will get messy, and everyone will see everyone else's data and emails.
If you enable 'Fast use switching' you can have several user accounts running at once and simply switch between them (though of course this all takes processing power and RAM). Probably better for everyone to sign in and sign out to their user account when they want to use the Mac - that feels like everyone having their own computer.

How to enable Remote Management on multiple Macs using Workgroup Manager?

Hi
I want to use workgroup manager to enable remote management on multiple macs I manage.
How can I do that?
Regards,
Omer Barel

The only way I know to enable remote managment remotely is by running kickstart.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2370
If you are already using a login script you could run kickstart from there.
We clone our Macs with remote management turned on.
Otherwise, lace up your sneakers.

Please help me manage multiple social media accounts... what application or extension should I be using on the mac

Help:
So all of a sudden, I am in a position where I need to manage multiple social media accounts, Please tell me what is the best app or extension or whatever to use on a Mac with Twitter, and Tumbler, and Facebook, and all the other sites I need to be streaming... please advice anyone..

This is Keynote discussion, the presentation application part of iWorks.
You should post this in the appropriate discussion for the operating system you have.

How do I manage multiple devices on the iCloud

How do I manage multiple devices on the icloud. We have 2 ipods, 2 iphones, ipad and a mac and right now the icloud thinks my son has my phone.

Try going to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>My Info (in the Contacts section), then select your contact from the list.

Itunes, Multiple Macs, Iphones and Icloud account vs.NAS help!

Hi all
I have a problem with the way im using Nas and how i manage multiple Itunes across multiple machines and Iphones.
Background.
Network - I have a Synology 2Tb NAS storage solution which is connected via a Wifi, ethernet router & modem to the other machines either fixed or wireless.
Connecting Devices ( See diagram)
Station one = Macpro - 10.7.5 | itunes 11.1.5 | Fixed Ethernet connection to router network
Station two = Mac Mini -10.7.5 | itunes 11.1.5 | fixed ethernet connection to route network
Station three = Macbook - Maverick | itunes 11.1.5 | wireless
History.
I have previously moved all my itunes files (Not the library) from station one (see diagram) to NAS using the advice on this forum (very helpful) and kept the library on the Macpro which caused no problem with the Itunes, phone syncing etc as it was all with one Apple icloud profile with one Iphone.
So the wife then got herself an Iphone which we found was difficult to synch on station one, so decided to use a mini mac as her machine so she could sync phone and have here own itunes and this i think is where I might have managed to screw things up and where the complexity begins.
We sync one calender across all machines using icloud but each person has seperate apple IDs for phones/itunes etc which we set up and that part seems to work.
Problem
The big issue I have now is that there are elements of the Itunes storage which are now going wrong and its mainly down to the seperate libraries being used and amending data on the stored files. It creates problems when one machine adds a file or amends a title it then throws out the local libraries on the machines
The solution i think is setting up a single library on each machine which syncs (somehow) everytime someone moves, changes and adds to the music and movie elemements yet i can continue to use a local library on station one and two which syncs for Iphone/Ipad and apps changes.
Is there a solution to that ?
Diagram.

My brain hurts.
Fundamental behaviors of iTunes:
iTunes only looks at its library file to tell it what is in the media collection. If items are added to the media folders directly without adding to the library, iTunes has no idea they are there. That's just the way it works and no way to get around it. Oh, you could maybe come up with an Applescript that would start iTunes and add items to a library at the same time. The Dougscripts web site even has one that kind of does that ('scan files folders not added' I think) but you'd need to modify it to make it automated.
Given the above, a using a common library file is the only way to make sure when iTunes is opened on a computer it is up to date on additions. However, a library file can only be opened by one running iTunes application at a time.

Methods to managing multiple devices and accounts.

My wife just got a new iPhone. this is added to my iPhone and a few iPod touches for the kids. Between cloud accounts, apple accounts, itunes accounts, . . . What is the best way to manages multiple accounts and what is the differentiation between the different accounts? I am not even sure what accounts are available. Is my Apple account different from my iTunes account? Apple ID seems to be everywhere. So I need my wife to have her own Apple ID, this I believe to be true. But what about syncing to the general iTunes account. We have one iMac with all our music on it. How can she sync with her Mac Book for contacts or what ever and sync to the family iTunes account for music. I am so confused? Help.
Thank you,
Doug

Have a read
http://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-5-icloud-tips-sharing-an-apple-id-with-you r-family/

Managing multiple iOS devices on different Apple accounts from the same iMac

May be a very simple question to answer, but can I manage multiple iOS devices on different Apple accounts from the same iMac?
I ask as whilst I'm totally Mac'd, my partner who has her own Apple account has a Winows laptop and experiences problems updating iOS software on her iPhone 4S and iPad 3 Gen via the laptop. I'm thinking the problems may be overcome if we manage her iOS devices through my iMac.

Thanks dwb .... I thought there'd be a catch .... not to keen on all that media and apps on my iMac!
The specific problem is that whenever she updates to the latsest version of iOS using the latest iTunes for Windows on her PC laptop she seems to lose something in the process. One time she lost all her texts and the other day when updating to 5.1.1 she lost all her reminders. Not the end of the world but frustrating and shouldn't really happen and doesn't happen to me using the iMac and OSX.

Managing multiple libraries

Hello everyone,
is there a way (even through a third-party add-on) to manage multiple libraries (I actually need to have only 2 libraries) in iTunes?
I'm asking so because I need to move part of my podcast collection to an external drive (I want to keep only the most "important" podcasts in my Mac and the rest of them in a external drive). But I'd like to make this change transparent to iTunes (I don't want to choose the library I want to mount every time I use iTunes).
Thanks and have a nice weekend.
Sig

I'm asking so because I need to move part of my podcast collection to an external drive (I want to keep only the most "important" podcasts in my Mac and the rest of them in a external drive).
You don't need a separate library to do this.
iTunes prefs -> Advanced.
Set the *iTunes media folder location* to the external.
In iTunes, select the items you want on the external then right click -> Consolidate selected files.
This will copy these to the external drive.
You can then delete them from the internal.
Then set iTunes prefs -> Advanced, *iTunes media folder location* back to the internal.
I'm looking for something integrated within iTunes
Then no, you cannot manage separate libraries except holding Option when starting and selecting the library you want.

Managing multiple Apple IDs in the office

Hi folks,
I'm at a small design studio, with 17 Macs. At the moment staff use their personal Apple IDs for updates etc - the problem with this is we have various freelancers who come in and use different macs. Is there an easy way to manage Apple IDs for multiple Macs - ideally…
An Apple ID would be associated with the Mac, not the user's email address. This would solve the problem we currently have when people leave or join the company, and when we have freelancers in.
Could we set up an office 'IT@…' email and use the same Apple ID across multiple Macs? How would this affect purchases of software - iWork for example - where we'd want that software purchased for multiple Macs?
What I really want to avoid is having to tie each Mac, and its software to a specific email address - which may be out of date in weeks or months.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Rob

You should speak to the folks at the Apple Business division about volume licensing for businesses. The way you currently are doing it also violates the Mac App Store Terms of Agreement which only issues you a consumer license. They can also give you advice regarding deployment of software over multiple Macs at once
.http://www.apple.com/business/vpp/

Manage multiple Domain.sites files

Is there any cool utility to manage multiple iWeb Domain files ?
In .Mac, is that possible to publish the site Site_A based on one Domain file and to publish just after the site Site_B based on another Domain file ?

XoruX
Take a look at this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=414637&tstart=15
Cyclosaurus is the man when it comes to Applescripts, he just keeps churning them out!
Will

Managing Multiple Galleries (i.e. multiple MobileMe accounts)

I have a family MobileMe account and wish to manage some of the family members' galleries from iPhoto. I know that I can have multiple iPhoto libraries if necessary, but have not been able to figure out how to manage multiple MobileMe accounts (and their galleries) via iPhoto. Any tips?

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The best approach to managing multiple MMe accounts on one Mac is to have multiple User account on that Mac, one for each MMe account. That also would require multiple libraries unless you will have all of the photos in one. If that's the case you can move the library to the Shared folder and access it there from each account.
In each account log into the appropriate MMe account via the System/MobileMe preference pane. Then enable fast user switching via the System/Accounts pane to make it easy to switch user account.
Click to view full size

Managing multiple Macs?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for